Thunderstorm
Not to be confused with Thunder and Lightning from Seasons 1 and 1.5, or Thunder from Season 2 雷霆飓风 (Translated as Thunderstorm, Thunder Hurricane, Extreme or Extreme Electric) is a heavyweight robot from Xinjiang, China, which competed in the inaugural season of King of Bots. Entered by the lone roboteer Peng Changqi, it reached the second round, where it was immobilized and defeated by Blue. Design Thunderstorm was a four-wheel drive, box-shaped robot with a yellow and black colour scheme, armed with an asymmetrical vertical bar spinner. The robot also featured an angled front wedge to lead opponents into the spinner, which could alternatively be used to push opponents around or be removed altogether. Thunderstorm's armament and overall design gave it a strong resemblance to the second version of ABC BattleBots champion Bite Force. Robot History King of Bots (Season 1) Debuting in Episode 2, Thunderstorm fought the multibot Burning Twin Star in its first battle. Prior to the battle, Peng Changqi failed to check the robot’s bar spinner before entering the arena - as a result, Thunderstorm fought with its weapon disabled. The weaponless Thunderstorm approached and bumped into the black part of Burning Twin Star, before pushing the white part into one of the grinders. The black part of Burning Twin Star attempted to attack Thunderstorm, only for Thunderstorm to get underneath, turn and ram it into the grinder mount. The impact immobilized the black part of Burning Twin Star, which Thunderstorm pushed into the grinder before it and the white part rammed each other. Sparks flew from the white part’s drum, but Thunderstorm kept pushing it into the spikes, grinders and circular saws until time ran out – the white part of Burning Twin Star had also been flipped over prior to Thunderstorm’s final attack. The battle went to a Judges’ decision, which ruled in favour of Thunderstorm. In the second round, Thunderstorm faced North American entry Blue; for this battle, Peng Changqi removed the robot’s front wedge, while its bar spinner was made operational for the first time. However, Thunderstorm encountered more problems within the opening seconds; it initially spun round, allowing Blue to approach and deflect it into the wall spikes. As it attempted to move away and was slammed again by Blue, a drive chain broke and fell out of Thunderstorm’s left-hand side; Blue subsequently pushed Thunderstorm underneath a nearby hammer while simultaneously axing its top-left panel. Sparks flew as Thunderstorm’s spinner made contact with the descending hammer; it sustained two more blows from Blue, one of which stopped its spinner. Thunderstorm was dragged back before Blue retracted its axe, allowing it to reverse and dodge another attack from the latter. It shuffled back and forth across the arena as it spun its weapon up again, but was unable to turn round and line up an attack as Blue strafed around it. Thunderstorm was pushed back under the hammer by Blue, its spinner damaging the hammer head in the process. Unable to drive away from the wall spikes or the hammer, Thunderstorm sustained two more blows from Blue before being counted out. As a result, it was eliminated from the competition, but not without Adam Wrigley of Bots FC praising Peng Changqi’s one-man effort. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 1 Series Record Outside King of Bots Prior to competing on King of Bots, team captain Peng Changqi finished third in the regional Xinjiang RoboMaster tournament. Also Thunderstorm, alongside fellow Chinese King of Bots competitor Chiyung Jinlun were registered on the waiting list for RoboGames 2018, but they ultimately did not attend the event. External Links *[http://kobchina.com/robot/26 Thunderstorm on the official King of Bots website (Chinese)] Category:King of Bots competitors Category:Season 1 competitors Category:Robots with Bar Spinners Category:Chinese Robots Category:Robots from Xinjiang Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots which have damaged the arena Category:RoboGames Competitors